I'm constantly testing out ideas and learning from them. I have a knack for high-level vision and consider myself to be a "social/civic designer". I also firmly believe that I can do anything thanks to my Girl Scout training. Each of my projects are extensions of myself and designing organizations and social systems helps me to make sense of what I learn daily, push boundaries of what we think is possible, and influence culture while testing out solutions in real time. I pick up on trends, design solutions to fill those gaps, and test it out. I'm a recruiter by nature and this ability to "sell ideas" and connect people makes this work come more easily to me. My intent is that with these core initiatives, I can set the foundation and infrastructure for others to build upon. All of these things help to build a "well-oiled" machine that optimizesactions taken by others to improve our neighborhoods.
For me, creating a personal website began in 2014 as a personal exercise to help myself articulate to myself who I am, what I do, and how I do it. A website is much different than journaling: you're faced with constraints of screen size, color, images, and amount of text to convey your message. I realized that I had multiple interests and I was determined to find a way to seamlessly integrate my passion for yoga, youth engagement, and community & economic development. By seeing these things on a computer screen, I was able to see links between them and discover my personal brand as a holistic community development specialist. Welcome to JasmineHumphries.com and thank you for reading.
BIO
Jasmine C. Humphries’ motto is “Never ready but always prepared.” She is a young community builder and budding social entrepreneur and you may know her by her recent project, Who “They” Is. A native of Cincinnati, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Cincinnati and completed the Summer Institute in Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. Jasmine takes a holistic approach to community building; building from the inside and out. She believes that in order to achieve and maintain equity, we must physically build it into our infrastructure. That’s exactly why Jasmine is on a mission to spread awareness of the implications that urban design has on our daily lives and to diversify the pipeline into urban planning and built environment industries such as construction, commercial real estate, architecture, transportation, and related industries that physically build our communities. Jasmine also believes that healthy people build healthy, sustainable communities and is a certified yoga teacher and holistic coach.
Jasmine is a proud product of her environment, having been nurtured by her parents Robert & Jacqueline and many village keepers. She’s the first graduate of the Avondale Youth Council and is a Girl Scout Gold Award recipient, the highest honor in Girl Scouts. Life came full circle on her 24th birthday, when she began a year of service on as an AmeriCoprps VISTA working at LISC where she learned the ins and outs of community development. Shortly after starting, she was inspired to share this newly acquired knowledge with youth, grabbed a couple of like-minded friends, and started a pilot summer program, VIBE(Voices In the Built Environment), in 2015 with a few months of planning and a shoe string budget. Later that year, she planned and organized the Inaugural West End Youth Summit as a way to engage youth in the neighborhood and to creatively collect information, such as screenplays with the Cincinnati Film Society, that could be used for the neighborhoods larger community plan. With inspiration from the summit, in 2016, Jasmine went on to win a $10,000 project grant from People’s Liberty for Who “They” Is, with a goal of humanizing and demystifying “They” as a means to empower youth to feel like they can make changes where they live. In a matter of 6 weeks, 20 youth from around greater Cincinnati came together to build a park and discover who “they” is only to realize that they.. are already “they.”
While teaching a teen yoga class at Hirsch Recreation Center, one student after waking from shavasana even told her that she has “magical mats,” a sentiment that showed her the need for more stillness in the lives of our troubled youth.
Jasmine has served as a project grant juror for the Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and for People’s Liberty. She continues to serve with community groups and friends whenever she can. She also hosts dinners with other like-minded young adults to build a community of support because, well, the struggle is real.
Just because I love doing hands on community work, I make sure the stay current on the Community and Economic Development scene.